A late eighteenth-century hilltop monastery near San Marcello in the Marches region is undergoing an astounding resurrection. And all thanks to the restoration skills of Pino’s team, Impresa Edile Giuseppe Alagna, on the job now for well over a year. [lcaption]The draped facade of San Marcello, July 2016: restoration to begin[/lcaption] [lcaption]Outside the gate, Pino…
Jodi, Star, Robyn and Susan, a delight to have you all in our Assisi countryside apartments! A joy to have you with us, right from our dinner together the day you arrived: What laughter as we shared “Umbria days” and “rural life moments.” Mille grazie for your notes to us before you left (which brought…
A group of us lived a bit of history today when we visited our rural friends in the Assisi countryside, hearing their stories of life on the land. And when Peppe – over eighty – retires his pitchfork and no longer raises cattle, goats, sheep, pigs, rabbits, fowl and cultivates his vineyard and hundreds of…
Peppa often invites us over for lunch or dinner and the invitation is almost always preceded with “non ho molto ma mangeremo qualcosa”: “I don’t have much but we’ll eat something.” This actually means, “come with an appetite!” Have a look at a meal or two at Peppa’s with “not much to eat” (click to…
How did I end up spending the rest of my life in Umbria? The Italian connection started years ago while studying junior-year-abroad in Rome. Coming up to half a century soon: Mary, can you believe it? We first met in Rome and that link endures. What joy to recently share with you here in Umbria…
Well, Mike and Celinda, you’ve now made the leap: the decision to live in Italy – and over the next few weeks, you’ll be deciding WHERE to set down those Italian roots. How good to connect with you again and talk over your options – and and over a rural feast with dear Giuseppa, farm…
Susan, you bid on the week in our farmhouse offered as an auction item by our dear friend, Donna. A joy to have met you and shared the week with all your Colorado family. Thanks so much for your note to us: “Dear Anne and Pino, I have been blessed to work with women battling…
It’s my mantra: you can’t know Italy if you don’t know the people. And Italy today is rooted in rural traditions and the rural people remain Italy’s “national treasures.” Lois and Larry from Wisconsin came along with me to visit these rural “treasures.” Peppe is one. At age eighty-five, he is still working the land.…
Pino often has quite a jaunt to bid on stone restoration work in distant sites. If I’m not booked for a tour on the day he’s headed to an area I’ve never seen, I go “along for the ride”…….and the wonders. I joined in gladly when he headed to Magliano de’ Marsi, Abruzzo mountain town…
Enroute to a wedding celebration near Reggello, south of Florence, we stopped for an espresso in a whisper of a town along the winding road skirting vineyards and olive groves, Cascia di Reggello. A towering bellower flanked a medieval church graced with a Romanesque portico and we headed over to explore: what a gem, that…